Another article on schools

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/14/magazine/14texbooks-t.html?scp=3&sq=texas%20curriculum&st=cse

This lengthy article looks at the Texas board of education.  Many on the board are Christian and hope to move forward with their agenda to get Texas textbooks and education to include more about Christianity.  Often the debate has been about science and specifically, evolution.  In this article, it looks at history, and how the Christian's on the board are trying to get education to look heavily at the founding father's (debatable) Christian views.

There is very much debate about what the founding fathers intended our country to be founded on.  Did they intend it to be a Christian nation, or a nation that held up the idea of Separation of Church and State?  Now, Christians on this board are saying that separation of Church and State doesn't mean what people traditionally thought of it, but something else.

Are they reading into it what they want to?  How does it effect education to limit it to just Christianity, and not respecting other ideas that the founding fathers might have held.  Is it impossible to provide both sides to students?  Or should they only hear that the founding fathers were Christians and ignore the possibility that they weren't.

I often wonder what this country would be like if the majority religion was Islam, Hinduism, or something else.  Would we still see the blatant neglect of intellectual freedom in some other form?  Or would other religions be more open to such things?  I know, for example, that Muslim scholars used to be the leading scholars on Aristotle, but they were stopped by their religious leaders because they did not think that Aristotle said things that they as a religion could agree on.  Is this testament to the idea that religion as a whole does not work well with intellectual freedom?

Spam = Free Speech?

http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1023310/spam-is-free-speech-claims-spammer

Can spam be considered free speech?  Here we have this idea of intellectual freedom.  The idea that people should be able to read and say what they want.  But is there a limit, and how do we draw a line (if so) so that we do not suffer collateral damage?

The spammer in the article has claimed that penalizing spam has interfered with his free speech.  In the same way, should libraries be able to penalize people who are sending spam or spamming libraries for exercising this act of "free speech?"

I feel like this is a sticky situation.  If too much of a limit is put on this, it could effect other things as well.  But then there is the other side.  No one enjoys spam (unless you do, I would love to see an argument enjoying spam), so why would you be against anti-spam laws?

Anti/Pro-Evolution

http://ncse.com/news/2010/06/antievolution-bills-die-south-carolina-005558

Evolution has been a big hitting issue lately in schools.  With the religious support of creationism and questioning of evolution, many people have begun to question why evolution is taught as fact.  Is it against the principles of intellectual and academic freedom to support evolution but deny creationism?

This article is about how an anti-evolution bill lost on its way to being enacted.  If it had been passed, it would force schools to see if their current science teachings talked in an unfavorable way towards any religion's scientific teachings, and also evaluate in what light evolution is taught.

In the realm of the library; I feel that it is appropriate to have material on creationism and evolution (if your collection permits it), because that is what intellectual freedom is about.  But what about in public schools?  Creationism is a religious belief.  Can we therefore marry church and state to teach religious beliefs?  We allow religious freedom, but can we then stress a certain religion in public schools and not another?

Intellectual Freedom in Catholicism

http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2007-09-28-theologians_N.htm

This article looks at how Catholics deal with issues that come up in their theologian's theology.  When it comes down to it, the Catholic Church has the final say on what is right and not in their religion, and thus they can suppress ideas when they do not agree.  Some theologians worry that intellectual freedom will be lost in the catholic church because of this.

What then is our job as librarians/information professionals in the realm of religion?

Can we even intervene in an issue like this?  My thoughts keep drifting back to separation of Church and State (something that religions manage to love and hate).  As a public librarian, does religion have any say as to what is on our shelves?

I feel like the answer to that is obvious for most of us (if not all).  But lets say, you are desperate for a job.  You take one at a catholic university, for the sake of this argument, lets say Notre Dame.  Do you fight for books that the university says "no" to on religious grounds.  The book written in the above article is under review because it is seemingly too accepting of other religions.

So I guess the overarching question is, does religion's seeming need for intellectual slavery interfere with our goal of intellectual freedom, and how?  How can we overcome it?

These are things I ponder often.  Please note I don't think religion is outside the realm of intellect or anything.  I just feel that I see many stories or hear many stories from people about a certain religion protesting a book/movie/something because they don't like what it has to say.

Final question: How do religion and intellectual freedom co-exist?  If they even do...